Posts published by Tanya Abrams

Every year, as one cohort of incoming students is accepted and another crop starts filling out applications, colleges across the country calculate one last measurement of their admission season success: the yield.

The admission yield percentage reflects the number of accepted students who have placed deposits, a definitive indicator of the institution they have decided to attend. With that data in hand, colleges also report how many, if any, of their wait-list applicants will be offered admission.

We reached out recently to several dozen colleges to find out how many of their accepted applicants had placed deposits and how much those colleges intended to use their wait lists. The preliminary figures, which will be updated as more data arrive, are included in the chart above. (To compare this year’s cohort to previous years’, click on the tabs of the worksheet above. You may also view a printer-friendly version of the chart.)Read more…

We’ve heard it time and again: rigor is one of the most important aspects of a college student’s application. But how exactly does a student present an awe-inspiring college application — one replete with challenging classes and impressive activities — without compromising his or her performance in those areas?

As high school students select their classes for next year, should they consider taking less advanced courses, in an effort to earn high grades?

I thought it might be helpful to hear directly from admissions officers on the matter. I’ve asked Jeff Rickey, the vice president and dean of admissions and financial aid at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., to answer some questions about selecting appropriate classes in high school.

In this edited version of our Q. and A., Mr. Rickey discusses what admissions officers look for when reviewing a student’s transcript, how students should balance rigorous classes and extracurricular activities, and whether it’s better to have an A in an honors class or a B in an Advanced Placement class.Read more…

You’ve been accepted to college. You’ve submitted your enrollment deposit. Your fate is sealed, it’s senior year, and the hectic college admission process is coming to an end.

You may be tempted to think that it is finally time to slack off a bit.

Be careful. Senioritis, that intensifying disinterest in maintaining high academic standards, is real — and it is dangerous, as regular readers of The Choice are aware.

Here are some reasons to avoid senioritis, along with excerpts from our previous posts:

Your Admission Offer May Be Rescinded

Somewhere in all those college admission letters, after the “congratulations’’ part, is a sentence to the effect that admission is conditional upon the student completing high school with the same academic and personal achievement on which the offer was based.

And they mean it. Each year, colleges rescind offers to students whose grades plummeted after they were admitted. Generally, one stray C won’t have serious repercussions. But make it a couple of D’s on a transcript that had been crammed with A’ s and B’s and there may be trouble.

Those states have tried a series of new approaches to choosing students, giving applicants a leg up for overcoming disadvantages like poverty, language barriers, low-performing schools and troubled neighborhoods. That process has drawn heavy scrutiny, but in California, it is only half of a two-pronged approach. Disadvantaged students in poor neighborhoods, like Erick Ramirez, a senior at Anaheim High School, are benefiting from the state university systems’ growing efforts to cultivate applicants starting in middle school.

“We’ve worked very hard to widen the pipeline, and there is still an enormous need to do more,” said Mark G. Yudof, president of the University of California system.Read more…

“We are moving to a computer-based version, but for the foreseeable future, we will also have the paper and pencil test as an option for schools that don’t have the technological capability,” said Jon Erickson, the president of ACT’s Education Division. “We will probably have the option for students to choose paper and pencil, as well. But all the anecdotal evidence is that students prefer the computer.”

The announcement arrived just as some states have reported problems with online testing, Ms. Lewin writes.

This year’s high school freshmen may be among the first students to sit for the digital version of the exam, if they take the test during the spring of their junior year.

The content of the ACT will remain unchanged, Ms. Lewin reports, though some questions may be enhanced:

The computer-administered ACT will, for the first time, move beyond fill-in-the-bubble multiple-choice questions, with some optional items in which students perform virtual tasks to reach their answer. For example, Mr. Erickson said, one science question shows four beakers of chemicals, and lets students manipulate the items, pouring one beaker into another to monitor changes in density. Students might then be asked to predict the order of the layers if all four chemicals were poured into the same beaker. “We think these constructed-response items will allow students to get much more engaged and enthusiastic about what they’re doing,” he said.

Would you prefer to take a computer-based ACT or a fill-in-the-bubble exam? Please share your thoughts about ACT’s plans in the comments box below.

If you are disappointed about your college options or didn’t complete the application process in time, it’s not too late to attend college this fall.

At least 210 colleges and universities still have space available for freshman and transfer students to join their campus in fall 2013. More than 99 percent of the schools still have housing, and all of them are still offering financial aid, according to the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

The colleges are in 39 states and the District of Columbia, as well as five other countries. Private colleges make up 72 percent of the list.

The list may be filtered by location. As of this writing, some of the colleges that are still accepting applications include:

Arizona State University

Frostburg State University (Maryland)

Hunter College – City University of New York

Loyola Marymount University (California)

Marquette University (Wisconsin)

Morehouse College (Georgia)

Southern Methodist University (Texas)

University of Florida

University of Kansas

Valparaiso University (Indiana)

It should be noted that the list is not all-inclusive. The survey is voluntary and open only to about 1,350 colleges that are Nacac members. There is a good chance that member colleges have yet to respond to the survey (which will be updated), and that some of the roughly 900 colleges and institutions that are not Nacac members may also have space available for the fall.

Students are encouraged to contact colleges directly to see if, and how, they might still apply for the fall semester. The survey provides a link with contact information for each institution.

Just a few weeks ago, many of you gathered around a virtual kitchen table on The Choice blog to share the admission decisions of the colleges to which you applied. Since then, you’ve had until May 1 to choose a college and submit an enrollment deposit.

The National Candidates Reply Date is here, seniors. How did you make your final college decision?

Whether you are excited about where you’re going to college, or just relieved from the burden of having to choose, we’d like to know about the biggest factor that helped you make the choice.

Was your college choice a close call or a no-brainer? Did you base your decision on affordability, academic fit or some combination of the two? Were you swayed by an institution’s prestige? Did someone help you make up your mind, did statistics help you decide, or did you rely on a gut feeling?

We hope you’ll share your thought process with other readers of The Choice, so that we might all have a better sense of what really happens when decision time comes.

College students and graduates are also welcome to weigh in, of course. It wasn’t long ago that you, too, had to make the choice. Perhaps your experience will help someone else.

So, tell us: How did you choose your college? What advice would you give to future college applicants who will one day have to choose?

If you are a high school senior who has yet to decide where you’re going to college, you are most likely joining many families who are heading into a weekend of tough decisions.

As the May 1 deadline of making a college choice approaches, I want to call your attention to some resources at The Times that may help you make your decision.

Guidance Office: Answers to Your Questions on Making the Final College Decision

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Mark Kantrowitz and Marie BighamCredit

In The Choice blog’s recent Decision-Time Q. and A., Marie Bigham, a former college admissions officer and veteran college counselor, and Mark Kantrowitz, an expert on financial aid, answered readers’ questions about comparing financial aid offers and deciding where to enroll in the blog’s virtual Guidance Office, a forum for college applicants and their families seeking expert advice.

I invite you to visit or revisit the five-part series, in which the panelists offered advice about college fit, comparing value, weighing prestige, and paying for college:Read more…

As part of an admissions practice that seems to be on the rise, many of this year’s admitted college applicants have learned that they must wait until spring 2014 to enroll, my colleague Ariel Kaminer reports:

Back in 2001, when U.S.C. started doing it, Timothy Brunold, the director of admissions, said he assumed the university was a pioneer. Now the list includes, among others, Skidmore College, Hamilton College, Brandeis University, the University of Miami, Northeastern University, Elon University in North Carolina and Middlebury College (which actually beat U.S.C. to the punch by a few decades).

They all have their own variation on the theme. Some, like Middlebury, in Vermont, allow students to request second-semester admissions; some make the decision for the students. Hamilton, in Clinton, N.Y., does not enroll students until they arrive on campus in the spring; Skidmore, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and Northeastern, in Boston, enroll them right away but direct them to spend their fall semester at a designated program abroad.

But all are motivated by the same basic arithmetic: between freshman-year attrition and junior-year abroad programs, campus populations drop off after the first few months of college each year. “With the economy the way it is, they need to be doing what they can to get tuition income,” said Scott G. Chrysler Jr., a college counselor in Louisiana who is active in the national group’s admissions practices committee. “An empty seat is not generating any income.”

Some students have made the best of their second-semester admissions, as Ms. Kaminer reports, but a thick envelope with delayed gratification is also sure to cause some disappointment.

What are your thoughts about the practice? Do you know someone who has received such an offer? Please join the discussion in the comments box below.

I hope that this data — while far from comprehensive — adds some perspective to the college admission process, especially for seniors who were disappointed by the results, and juniors who are anxious about their own outcomes next year.

Applicant pools are growing larger; the University of Southern California received more than 47,000 applications this year. That’s 10,000 more students than just two years ago, when this year’s applicants were sophomores.

Colleges are also becoming more selective. The Ivy League reported an admit rate that dipped to 5.79 percent at Harvard this year. Stanford accepted 5.69 percent of its more than 38,800 applicants. The University of Chicago accepted only 8.8 percent of its more than 30,300 applicants.

These are extreme examples; there are more than 2,000 four-year colleges and universities in this country, and many of them offer an excellent education and admit the majority of students who apply. But as interest increases at selective institutions, it may help disappointed applicants to know that thousands of smart, talented, qualified students had to be turned away.

There are various reasons for this: Colleges concerned about their rankings are appearing more selective (and appealing) than ever. Admission officers often select students who are likely to enroll. And, of course, the huge volume of applications dictates that there just isn’t enough room for every good student who applies.

There are other reasons for the outcomes, all of which make holistic college admissions a complex, unpredictable process. So if you are a student or a parent who is scratching your head as you review the chart, just know that you’re not alone. Our student bloggers are a bit “baffled” and “dumbfounded” about the admission decisions, too.

Some notes about our 2013 college admissions report:

This list is hardly comprehensive. There are more than 2,000 colleges and universities in this country; only a fraction are listed here. Our aim is to provide a sense of the admissions decisions made around the country, based on the statistics that we have received so far.

Early admission applicants who were deferred and accepted in regular admissions were counted twice: as early applicants, and again as regular admits.

“N/A” indicates that the data was not made available or does not apply to the institution. (Colleges that do not have early admissions, for example, did not report early admit rates.)

Check the chart for updates. This list represents a rough draft, based on early figures supplied by those colleges and universities that responded to a survey from The Choice over the last few weeks. Some admissions officers are still compiling their data. (Admissions officers: If you have data that you wish to have published on The Choice, please contact us at thechoicenyt@gmail.com.)

If you are a student (or parent) who would like to share your admission decisions, please join the round-table discussion we began in late March.

If you are still trying to decide where to enroll, we also hope you will visit our five-part Decision Time Q. and A. with Mark Kantrowitz, an expert on financial aid, and Marie Bigham, a former college admission officer and veteran college counselor.

As always, we also welcome your thoughts on this year’s admissions data in the comments box below.